Apparatus for calculating complements in calculating machines



April 25, 1957 TETSUO SATO ETAL 3,315,885

APPARATUS FOR CALCULATING COMPLEMENTS IN CALCULATING MACHINES Filed Dec. 27, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 F l G. I

PRIOR ART INVENTORS mad/QM April 25, 1967 TETSUO SATO ETAL 3,315,885

APPARATUS FOR CALCULATING COMPLEMENTS IN CALCULATING MACHINES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 27, 1965 PRIOR ART INVENTOR S United States Patent r 3,315,885 APPARATUS FOR CALCULATING COMPLEMENTS IN CALCULATING MACHINES Tetsuo Sato and Harutaro Oba, Ohito-machi, Takata-gun,

Japan, assignors to Tokyo Denki Kabushiki Kaisha,

Tokyo-to, Japan Filed Dec. 27, 1965, Ser. No. 516,227 Claims priority, application Japan, Dec. 30, 1964,

2 Claims. (Cl. 235-60) This invention relates to apparatus for calculating complements in mechanical calculating machines. In certain types of mechanical calculating machines negative values obtained by subtraction operations are not represented by their absolute values, but are generally expressed, for example, as 1-2=999 Therefore, it is desirable to record the absolute value of 1 instead of 9999. The term complemen utilized in this spec'- ification means such absolute value. In prior calculating machines the mechanism for calculating the complements is constructed such that the meshing relation of pinions utilized for recording is switched or changed to represent the absolute value of a negative number when it is obtained after subtraction operation. To effect such switching of recording pinions the prior apparatus utilizes a very complicated mechanism, so that it is very diflicult to fabricate and adjust it. Moreover, its operation is not stable.

Accordingly the principal object of this invention is to provide a simple apparatus for calculating complements in mechanical calculating machines.

In order that the invention may be more fully described, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of essential elements of a prior complement calculating apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a side view of a portion of the complement calculating apparatus shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of one embodiment of this invention.

For the sake of description, at first an example of a prior complement calculating apparatus for a calculating machine will be described by referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawing. A plurality of spaced type wheels a a a,,, each provided with types 0 to 9 inclusive on its periphery, are mounted on a common shaft so as to rotate independently, and gears b b bv associated with the respective type Wheels are arranged to mesh racks 1 of vertically movable plates c c o respectively. Each of these vertically movable plates c c c is provided with a projection 2 at its rear edge which cooperates with a check bar 3 and a plurality of pins 4 are carried by a pin carriage 5 which serves to set numbers to be calculated, as shown in FIG. 2. Details of these mechanisms are not shown since they are immaterial to this invention. The vertical-1y movable plates 0 c c are respectively connected to frame members d d d each provided with opposing left hand rack 7 for addition and a right hand rack 8 for subtraction, as shown in FIG. 2. Between these rack pairs are disposed recording pinions e e e which are upon a horizontal shaft 9 which is arranged to be moved to the left or right as viewed in FIG. 2. More particularly when the pinion e is engaging the addition rack 7 a particular number set by said pin carriage 5 will be recorded as addition whereas when the pinion e is engaging the subtraction rack 8 a particular set number will be recorded as subtraction.

In order to increase or decrease the digit during an addition or subtraction operation, circular discs f f having diametrically opposite projections 10 and 11 are associated with respective pinions e e e and beneath these discs and upon a horizontal shaft 14 are mounted rocking plates g g g having radial projections 12 and 13 adapted to engage projections 10 and 11, said rocking plates being mounted to rotate independently. Pins 18 secured to one end of bellcrank levers h I2 h are urged to normally engage recesses 15 between projections 12 and 13. These bellcrank levers h h h are pivotally mounted upon a horizontal shaft 16 with their opposite ends engaged with one end of respective rocking levers i i i which are pivotally mounted on a horizontal shaft 19, the opposite end of each of these levers being urged to engage the lower end of the adjacent frame member d which is higher by one digit than that of the frame member corresponding to the particular lever. As a result when the pinion e is rotated from 9 to 0 during an addition operation or from 0 to 9 during a subtraction operation either one of the projections 10 or 11 will engage the projection 12 or 13 to rotate the rocking plate 9 whereby to rotate the bellcrank lever 12 in the counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 2 thus disengaging the rocking lever i. Then the rocking lever i will be rotated by the force of a spring 21 to actuate the adjacent frame member a which is higher by one digit, thus rotating the corresponding pinion e by one increment or one tooth thereof to increase or decrease the digit. A pivoted rocking lever i is provided having one end en gaging the last bellcrank lever k and the opposite end engaging the frame member d of the first digit.

With the arrangement described above when the value of sum becomes negative the pinion a of the uppermost digit tends to rotate from 0 to 9 so that the projection 11 of the corresponding disc f engages the projection 13 of the rocking plate g thereby causing it to rock. This rocking motion of the rocking plate g will move the frame member d by one increment via the bellcrank lever h and the rocking lever i thus switching the recording mechanism for recording complements. Concurrently therewith the rocking plate g rotates a lever 24 which is pivotally mounted on the horizontal shaft 16, via a pin 23 fixed to the rocking plate g As a result, engagement between a pawl 25 provided at one end of the lever 24 and notches k and k of a lever 26 is changed to vary the position of the end I of the lever 26. Thus representing the complements.

The detail of the complement indicating mechanism is as follows:

A type wheel a provided with a type representing the complement c and other types representing intermediate sum, whole sum and the like is mounted coaxially with and adjacent to the type wheel a A gear b associated with the type Wheel a is arranged to mesh a rack 1 of a vertically movable plate c which is provided with a projection 27 similar to the projection 2, which cooperates with a check bar 3. A- rack plate 29 is connected to the vertically movable plate o via a connecting rod 28 and a gear 30 meshing with the rack plate 29 drives a rack lever 33 in the horizontal direction through a gear 32 secured to a common shaft 31, said rack lever 33 being provided with notches p p p and 2 respectively adapted to engage pins n n n and 12 which are secured to a whole sum key m an intermediate sum key m a not-addition key m and a subtracticn key 111 respectively. The lower ends of keys m and m are connected to bellcrank levers q and 61 with the opposite ends connected, through links r and r to a shaft 36 which is secured to one end of an arm 35 pivotally mounted on a shaft 34. The opposite end of the shaft 36 carries an interlocking lever 37, the lower' edge s at an intermediate point thereof being opposed to the end I of said lever 24. An arm I projecting from the free end of the interlocking lever 37 extends freely 3 through an opening provided for a pawl lever 39 which is provided with a pawl u at its upper end which is arranged to cooperate with the gear 32.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: When the check bar 3 is disengaged from the projection 27 by a suitable mechanism not shown in the drawing and when any one of the keys m m is deperessed, the vertically movable plate will be raised by the tension of the associated spring to rotate the type wheel a At the same time, the vertical movement of the plate c results in the longitudinal movement of the rack plate 33 through the connecting rod 28, rack plate 29, gear 30, shaft 31, and the gear 32 until the vertical edge of one of the notches 2 comes to engage the pin n of the depressed key In at which time the vertical movable plate o and the type wheel a come to stop to present their types corresponding to the depressed key 112. When the key In, or 111 is depressed it will tend to rotate the interlocking lever 37 and the arm 35 around the shaft 34 through the bellcrank lever q and the link r. However, when the sum is positive, the free end I of the lever 24 is in its lower position and hence the interlocking lever 37 is also in its lower position so that the interlocking lever 37 can not rotate around the shaft 34. On the contrary when the sum is negative, or a complement is represented, the end I of the lever 24 and the interlocking lever 37 are in their upper position, so that the pawl lever 39 is caused to rotate in the counterclockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 1, by said rotary movement of the interlocking lever 37 about the shaft 34 to cause its pawl u to engage a pin 40 which is inserted between teeth of the gear 32. Accordingly, when the vertically movable plate 0,, is raised as above mentioned and a side edge of the notch p engages a pin 11 the pin 4t} engages the pawl 14 whereby the type wheel a presents the type designating the complement to the printing position. When the lever 39 is rotated in the counterclockwise direction as above mentioned an arm 39a associated therewith acts to shift respective recording pinions e e e toward the subtraction racks via a suitable mechanism, not shown whereby each of the type wheels (1 a a represents a complement.

The conventional mechanism described above is extremely complicated. Especially, because the lever h for switching the recording mechanism and the lever 24 extend beneath the recording mechanism in the longitudinal direction thereof as shown in FIG. 1 it is not only inconvenient to assemble and adjust the mechanism but also its operation is not stable.

The present invention contemplates elimination of these difficulties and the improved mechanism of this invention will be described by referring to FIG. 3 in which there is shown the movable plate 0 and frame member d for the units place, and wherein the identical parts are designated by the same reference characters as in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 3 a rocking lever i is pivotally mounted on a shaft 41 at its central portion and the right hand end of the lever i is arranged to engage a projection w provided on a bellcrank lever 11,, attached to the rocking plate g,, of the pinion e (not shown). A pin 42 fixed to one side of the rocking lever i loosely extends through an elongated opening 45 in a lever 4-4 which is pivotally mounted upon a shaft 4-3. The opposite end of the lever 44 is connected to the lower end of a vertical link 26 having an elongated opening 47 at its upper end to loosely receive the free end of a shaft 9. A lever 45! mounted upon a shaft 48 and a lever 51 mounted upon a shaft 59 are interconnected by a spring 52 to hold the lower edge of the lever 49 against the upper end of the lever 51. A further pin 57 is secured to one side of the lever 46 to cooperate with a projection x on the lower edge of the lever 51.. The outer end of the lever 49 is connected to the upper end of a link 53 having its lower end connected a lever 55 via a rod 56, said lever 55 being provided with the printing position.

a pawl z at its one end which cooperates with a bent-up edge y of said pawl lever 39.

The operation of the improved mechanism is as follows:

When the sum becomes negative the lever h is caused to rotate in the counterclockwise direction about the shaft 16 by the rocking motion of the rocking plate g of the uppermost digit to disengage the projection w from the rocking lever i Also the rocking lever i is rotated in the counterclockwise direction to switch the recording mechanism for recording complements. The counterclockwise rotation of the rocking lever i will raise the pin 42 to rotate the lever 44 in the clockwise direction about the shaft 43, thus raising the lever 46.

At this time, if it is assumed that pinions e are meshing with left hand addition racks 7 then the further pin 57 will engage the projection x of the lever 51 to cause it to rotate in the counterclockwise direction,'thus disengaging the lever 51 from the lever 49. Thereupon the lever 49 rotates in the counterclockwise direction to lower the lever 55 through the link 53 and the connecting rod 56 to disengage the pawl z from the bent-up edge y. Thus movement of the shaft 36 toward the right will not rotate the pawl lever 39.

On the contrary when the pinions e are meshing with the right hand subtraction racks 8, the further pin 57 will engage the lower edge of the lever 49 to cause it to rotate in the clockwise direction so that the lever 55 will be raised through the link 53 and the connecting pin 56 to bring the pawl z in the path of the bent-up edge y. As a result when the shaft 36 is movedto right as viewed in FIG. 3 the pawl lever 39 will be rotated in the counterclockwise direction to cause its pawl u to engage the pin 49, as above described. Thus the type wheel a is brought to a position to present its complement type to More particularly, when the sum becomes negative after a subtraction operation the pawl 2 will assume a position in which it can engage the bent-up edge y whereas when the sum after an addition operation becomes positive the pawl 2 will be restored to a position in which it will not engage the bent-up edge.

Thus it will be seen that since in accordance with this,

invention the movement of a bar which switches the recording mechanism for recording complements is utilized to represent complement types or designations it is possible to eliminate the lever 24 shown in FIG. 1, thus simplifying the construction and assembly of the mechanism. Moreover, the stability of operation thereof is also improved.

While the invention has been shown and described in connection with a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto and includes any modifications and alternations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention. For example, instead of type wheels, vertically movable levers provided with types along their lengths may be used as the indicating mechanism.

What is claimed is:

1. In a mechanical calculating machine having an apparatus for calculating complements, said machine having a plurality of frame members corresponding to the successive denomination-a1 orders, each of said frame members having an addition rack and a subtraction rack thereon and being displaceable longitudinally of said racks, pin carriage means, frame member moving means coupled to said frame members for moving them longitudinally under control of said pin carriage means, a plurality of recording pinions, one for each frame member and movable transversely of said racks for selective meshing with said addition racks or said subtraction racks, a plurality of rocking levers, one associated with each pinion for engaging the adjacent frame members for raising the adjacent frame members to increase or decrease the number indicated thereby by one unit, an indicating wheel having a plurality of indicating type faces thereon and positioned adjacent the frame member for the lowest denominational order, an indicating frame member engaged with said indicating wheel for rotating said indicating wheel for positioning different type faces on said indicating wheel to print, and means for moving said indicating frame member, that improvement comprising a first lever coupled to the rocking lever for the highest denominational order recording pinion, a second lever, said first lever being movable toward and away from said second lever to engage and disengage therefrom, said second lever engaging the frame member for the lowest denominational order for moving said last mentioned frame member to lower it when said first lever is disengaged from said second lever, and coupling means coupled between said second lever and the indicating frame member moving means for moving said indicating frame member in the direction to rotate said indicating wheel to move the appropriate type face into printing position upon movement of said first and second levers in response to the rocking motion of said highest denominational order recording pinion.

2. The improvement as claimed in claim 1 in which said coupling means comprises a pin on said second lever, a rockable linkage loosely engaged with said pin and having a further pin thereon, a pair of selecting levers engageable with each other, one being engaged with said further pin and rotated out of engagement with the other when said recording pinions are engaged with said addition racks, said other selecting lever then being free to rotate in one direction, and the other selecting lever being engaged with and rotated by said further pin in another direction when said recording pinions are engaged with said subtraction racks, a rotatable member connected to said other selecting lever and rotatable in response to movement of said other selecting lever, a pawl lever engageable with said indicating frame member moving means for moving said moving means so as to move said indicating frame member, said rotatable member being rotated into engagement with said pawl member for moving said pawl member when the rotatable member is rotated by said other selecting lever rotating in said another direction and being disengaged from said pawl lever when it is rotated by said rotating member rotated by said other selecting lever rotating in said one direction, said rotatable member being coupled to said recording pinions to be movable transversely with said recording pinions, whereby when said rotatable member is engaged with said pawl lever and said recording pinions are moved into engagement with the subtraction racks, said pawl lever is moved to actuate said indicating frame member moving means to rotate said indicating wheel.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,057,400 1071936 Sundstrand 235-60 2,705,106 3/1955 Westinger et al. 235-602 RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner. STANLEY A. WAL, Examiner. 

1. IN A MECHANICAL CALCULATING MACHINE HAVING AN APPARATUS FOR CALCULATING COMPLEMENTS, SAID MACHINE HAVING A PLURALITY OF FRAME MEMBERS CORRESPONDING TO THE SUCCESSIVE DENOMINATIONAL ORDERS, EACH OF SAID FRAME MEMBERS HAVING AN ADDITION RACK AND A SUBTRACTION RACK THEREON AND BEING DISPLACEABLE LONGITUDINALLY OF SAID RACKS, PIN CARRIAGE MEANS, FRAME MEMBER MOVING MEANS COUPLED TO SAID FRAME MEMBERS FOR MOVING THEM LONGITUDINALLY UNDER CONTROL OF SAID PIN CARRIAGE MEANS, A PLURALITY OF RECORDING PINIONS, ONE FOR EACH FRAME MEMBER AND MOVABLE TRANSVERSELY OF SAID RACKS FOR SELECTIVE MESHING WITH SAID ADDITION RACKS OR SAID SUBTRACTION RACKS, A PLURALITY OF ROCKING LEVERS, ONE ASSOCIATED WITH EACH PINION FOR ENGAGING THE ADJACENT FRAME MEMBERS FOR RAISING THE ADJACENT FRAME MEMBERS TO INCREASE OR DECREASE THE NUMBER INDICATED THEREBY BY ONE UNIT, AN INDICATING WHEEL HAVING A PLURALITY OF INDICATING TYPE FACES THEREON AND POSITIONED ADJACENT THE FRAME MEMBER FOR THE LOWEST DENOMINATIONAL ORDER, AN INDICATING FRAME MEMBER ENGAGED WITH SAID INDICATING WHEEL FOR ROTATING SAID INDICATING WHEEL FOR POSITIONING DIFFERENT TYPE FACES ON SAID INDICATING WHEEL TO PRINT, AND MEANS FOR MOVING SAID INDICATING FRAME MEMBER, THAT IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING A FIRST LEVER COUPLED TO THE ROCKING LEVER FOR THE HIGHEST DENOMINATIONAL ORDER RECORDING PINION, A SECOND LEVER, SAID FIRST LEVER BEING MOVABLE TOWARD AND AWAY FROM SAID SECOND LEVER TO ENGAGE AND DISENGAGE THEREFROM, SAID SECOND LEVER ENGAGING THE FRAME MEMBER FOR THE LOWEST DENOMINATIONAL ORDER FOR MOVING SAID LAST MENTIONED FRAME MEMBER TO LOWER IT WHEN SAID FIRST LEVER IS DISENGAGED FROM SAID SECOND LEVER, AND COUPLING MEANS COUPLED BETWEEN SAID SECOND LEVER AND THE INDICATING FRAME MEMBER MOVING MEANS FOR MOVING SAID INDICATING FRAME MEMBER IN THE DIRECTION TO ROTATE SAID INDICATING WHEEL TO MOVE THE APPROPRIATE TYPE FACE INTO PRINTING POSITION UPON MOVEMENT OF SAID FIRST AND SECOND LEVERS IN RESPONSE TO THE ROCKING MOTION OF SAID HIGHEST DENOMINATIONAL ORDER RECORDING PINION. 